The present disclosure relates to toner container attachment detecting devices for detecting states of attachment/removal of toner containers and image forming apparatuses using the same and particularly relates to a technique for increasing the accuracy of detecting attachment/removal of a toner container.
In image forming apparatuses, such as a copier, for example, black, yellow, cyan, and magenta colored toners are used in order to form a multicolored image. Furthermore, in such an image forming apparatus, the toners of four colors are individually contained in separate toner containers removably attached to an apparatus body of the image forming apparatus and each toner is appropriately supplied from the associated toner container to a developing device according to a multicolor image to be formed.
Meanwhile, in the above image forming apparatus, predetermined toner information, including toner types used and toner levels in the toner containers, is managed by applying a wireless tag communication system using RFID (radio frequency identification). Specifically, in the image forming apparatus, the predetermined toner information is managed by attaching a tag to each toner container and using a reader-writer provided at the apparatus body to write the toner information on the tag and read it from the tag.
There is an example of a general toner container attachment detecting device that detects the state of attachment/removal of a toner container using the above wireless tag communication system applied to the management of toner information.